80 years of progress Derksen Printers founder chooses ink over plow printing plant. By this time, The Carillon by Wes Keating News had become a force in the com- ERHARD S. Derk- munity beside its parent publication, The Steinbach Post. sen found it difficult The firm contracted printing jobs of to adjust to the farm a hundred various descriptions. And the G rest, as they say, is history. life on the Saskatchewan The Gerhard S. Derksen who started prairie, and nine years after it all 80 years ago would be able to look immigrating to Canada he back with amazement at the changes new technology has wrought. moved his wife and young Plant supervisor, plant manager, pro- family to Steinbach where duction boss or whatever other title he answers to, Norm Sobering has only he began work as a writer been with the company for 38 years, and with the German-language in that time the changes he has seen have newspaper, The Steinbach been amazing enough. Sobering says the linotype machines Post. were still at the shop when he started At the time, the German newspaper work as a young press man in 1978. But and its small commercial printing shop even then, they were dinosaurs, standing was operated by Arnold Dyck, a friend idle at the back door, waiting to be hauled and former colleague of Derksen’s in away to the scrap heap. The era of lead Russia. type was definitely over. By 1936, Derksen reached a position Installation of $50,000 worth of com- where he could buy the business. An ac- puter typesetting equipment, during the countant with the firm that audited the spring of 1970, marked the third phase of company’s books expressed amazement a five-year expansion and modernization that a man of 48 years of age would have program at Derksen Printers. the will to start a business and make a The program began with the purchase success of it. of an $85,000 three-unit offset press in But in the printing and publishing busi- 1965 and continued with the comple- ness, Derksen had found his calling, and tion of construction of a new building in by 1948 was able to establish a modern 1968. Gerhard S. Derksen (right) and B. Kornelson look over a Free Press article about school grants to be translated See “ Derksens” on page 2D to German for the next issue of The Steinbach Post. After 70 years The Carillon still raising bar for community newspapers become weekly newspaper publishers, by Wes Keating owning the Estevan Mercury and the Weyburn Review, respectively. ERHARD S. Derk- Though the founder of Derksen Print- sen created more ers passed away in 1957, Bruno Derk- than just a success- sen died suddenly in 1967, and Eugene G Derksen, the driving force behind the ful printing business when newspaper for many years, died in 1994, the company remained a vibrant family he changed career paths in enterprise under the direction of Eu- 1932. As editor of the Ger- gene’s son Rick (Erich) until it was sold man-language Steinbach to the present ownership in 2011. Rick Derksen, like his father Eugene Post, he brought home to and Eugene’s father before him, exhibit- his family his enthusiasm ed a strong sense of community, quietly working very much behind the scenes, and his love for the role of using his understanding of the strength the community newspaper of a community newspaper to help keep his community growing. in people’s daily lives. The Carillon arrived in time to herald For more than seven decades, Derk- the changing status of Steinbach from sen Printers was very much a family a village under municipal government affair, starting with Derksen’s sons Eu- control to a town ready to stand on its gene, George and Bruno, and his son-in- own. law Peter Rosenfeld. The Incorporation of Steinbach be- A decade after buying the printing came official January 1, 1947 and The business, which was home of the Stein- Carillon camera was there to record the bach Post, the Derksens decided to add changing of the guard. The Carillon an English language newspaper to serve camera is still there recording important all of the Southeast. While continuing to events in communities throughout the publish the German-language Post, they Southeast. launched a weekly newspaper, taking A shrinking population wiped out the name of the Manitoba constituency dozens of hamlets in the Southeast over which would encompass a large part of the years, but the loyal readership of The their target coverage area. Carillon is kept up to speed on the news The Carillon made its debut Feb 21. from home on the Internet. 1946 and became an instant success The Carillon has become the harbinger under the guidance of Eugene Derksen of news, both good and bad, that matters as editor, Bruno Derksen as advertising to people in the Southeast and for many manager, and typesetters George Derk- distant readers, the newspaper continues sen and Peter Rosenfeld. to be a welcome letter from home. Ernest Neufeld, a brother-in-law, also If news happens anywhere in south- became a partner and worked as a type- eastern Manitoba, it is a sure bet one of setter and sports reporter while his wife three dozen community correspondents, Irene was the office manager. from Anola to Woodridge, will let their Eugene Derksen proudly displays the biggest issue of The Carillon News to date as he waits at the curb for a Both George Derksen and Ernest readers know about it. truck to pick up the 1½ tons of newsprint that went into printing the October 20, 1950 copy of the 24-page paper. Neufeld moved to Saskatchewan later to See “The Carillon” on page 4D www.thecarillon.com www.derksenprinters.com 2D – The Carillon, Thursday, February 25, 2016 Steinbach, Man. www.thecarillon.com Derksens expands under partnership of father and son continued from page 1D The construction, renovation Textmaster, in 1970, ushered in a ther streamlined the operations other suburban newspaper with a throughout the 1980s, with the “bang-on”, Sobering explains. and expansion was in essence the whole new era of typesetting and of rural Manitoba’s largest news- circulation of 16,000. constant upgrading of typeset- Today’s press room at Derksen first father/son project for Rick was capable of producing 1,000 paper printing plant. The new press added a number ting equipment, construction of Printers has six four-color tow- Derksen who had become a part- characters a minute. The equip- The new equipment had a ca- of community newspapers to the a new press building and the in- ers, two of which are ultraviolet ner in the business with Eugene, ment required only three people pacity far beyond the printing of Derksen Printers printing list as stallation of a huge (for its day) printers, capable of printing on buying his uncle’s shares after as operators, but could keep five The Carillon News, The Beause- well, including Stonewall, Al- Goss Community press. coated gloss paper at high speed. Bruno Derksen’s death in 1967. capable typesetters busy. jour Beaver, the Morris-Emerson tona and Carman. Derksen Print- But that, too has gone the way There are 24 printing units, The three-phase expansion and Beginning the week of March Journal, and The Steinbach Post ers quickly became a favorite of of the linotype machines, with compared to 1965, when there modernization of the Steinbach 12, 1970, all copy in The Caril- for which it was originally used. Winnipeg groups printing ethnic just one feeder left and Goss were three, Sobering points out. printing plant was only the be- lon News and two other Derksen To follow their dream to weeklies in several languages units being dismantled for parts Today, the main press is ca- ginning of a continuous program newspapers, The Morris-Emer- make Derksen Printers a centre other than English . Publishers of over the years. pable of printing 23,000 copies of renovations, additions, and in- son Journal and The Beausejour for printing other publications Filipino, French, Ukrainian and But for Sobering and other an hour, with automatic splicers stallations of new equipment that Beaver was set by the ultra-mod- as well, the company bought a Polish newspapers struck up a long time employees, the big- eliminating the necessity to stop has kept Derksen Printers abreast ern computerized typesetting five-unit Harris offset press in lasting working relationship with gest changes came late in the the presses to change paper rolls. of the changing technologies of units. the mid-1970s. Early examples the Steinbach plant. 1990s, when the company went Printing 130,000 flyers takes the printing industry for the past Photon typesetting made the of new customers included the But Derksen Printers was not from computer type outputted only 4 1/2 hours. 80 years. Steinbach newspaper-publishing printing of 35,000 copies of one a company prone to standing for paste-up on big sheets to a One Winnipeg newspaper, the The brand new Photon 713 and printing firm unique and fur- magazine and the printing of an- still, and expansion continued computer-to-film system, which Metro, is on the press and printed eliminated the big cameras and in about three hours, five nights a saved hours of work, week. The next step came in 2004- The working day in the press 2005, when a computer-to-plate room at Derksen’s covers 17 system eliminated the whole hours, with a two-shift system stripping department.